"Do not separate text from historical background. If you do,
you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution,
which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of
illegitimate government." --- James Madison.

"On every question of construction [of the Constitution] let
us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution
was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates,
and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of
the text, or intended against it, conform to the probable
one in which it was passed." --- Thomas Jefferson